Universally, the unified communications and collaboration vendors will continue to build upon trust and security messaging as differentiators while specialty collaboration security and data protection vendors emerge within this market landscape. Businesses will also continue to wrap their arms around providing the endpoint hardware and peripheral kit that will help them deliver a predictable and optimal user experience. Additionally, there are three important dynamics to monitor in 2022:

Employee sophistication with the overall usage of unified communications and collaboration platforms, as well as the breadth of functionality that they will potentially embrace.

Platform strategy, as companies align to corporate and/or departmental platforms and how the vendor ecosystem chooses to either integrate into a platform or become the platform.

The velocity of application development and integration, where organizations build workflows that connect applications and automate tasks.

Expect to see businesses readjust strategies in 2022 as they overcome false starts, consolidate tools, and execute on a unified communications and collaboration strategy coupled directly to business strategy and goals. How employees work now and in the future will be a major factor in the enthusiasm and pace with which businesses adopt unified communications and collaboration platforms in 2022. Strategic platform decisions will become imperative in 2022, as businesses combine what they have experienced in 2020 and 2021, the visionary concepts of the future, and the communication channels that best support business.